I flew into
Santiago-STI, my brother and his wife picked us up at the Airport. We packed ourselves into the jeep and headed for the first Presidente stop of many to come, of course I get a quick buzz ‘cause I haven’t eaten much. After that we drove to one of my cousins house which was just built and they were having a house warming dinner. The house is built over a hill in the campo with a beautiful view of the mountains, in that campo almost everyone is related some way or another, we spent a nice afternoon over more presidentes and delicious moro de guandules, stewed
chicken and roast pork and casabe. El Prodigio, the leader of the tipico band shows up with one of the relatives and we take pictures and he eats with us and blends in easily, he is a very easy to talk to person, very down to earth.
On the 6th that night we went dancing and Yiovanny Polanco was playing, tipico merengue, had our picture taken with him. Seems very easy going guy, doesn’t sing though but his singers are very good.
On the 7th we headed for
Puerto Plata, it was pouring in the morning so we have to be driven in a jeep out to the main road five at a time, we had hired a van which was waiting for us there . We took the winding road to Puerto Plata, under the rain we made one stop and everyone except my children and I ate, chicarron de puerco, yucca, tostones, vaca frita, batata frita, everything looked very very greasy and unsanitary. The bill, 700 pesos for a group of 14 people.
We get to the hotel,
Ahmsa Marina Paradise, and we check in with no problems except, that some of the the 9 rooms we had reserved were flooded, one AC was not working they complained and some people were put into different rooms. That first day was cold and raining all afternoon, that didn’t stop me from getting into my bikini and heading for a dip in the ocean. The next day was beautiful and sunny all day. No sankys in sight but many vendors where which I enjoyed haggling with, totally overcharge for their items. One of my “dominoes playing fanatic brother” digged out or bought a set of dominoes and some of the men played all day by the bar.
For those two nights the other “drink til you drop brother” and some of the girls headed for the
Crazy moon club. The drinks are overpriced in there so we made sure we were happy before getting there. No sankys in sight at the club, ??? The food at Paradise wasn’t as good as it was a few years ago. Some of the meats were cold and I had some vegetables that made me sick. The fruits were delicious and the fruit juices also. The Last day was partly cloudy but we enjoyed the day and check out at 1pm and headed for Santiago. I took a long island icetea on the road so I was feeling it when we stopped for more beer and to use the bathroom.
I stayed in Santiago so I called one of the
DR1 members and we met for drinks at Francifol, the place is very chic, full of upper middle class professionals. They play loud music so its hard to have a conversation but you can dance if you like. I enjoyed myself very much. It was Wednesday so they were serving free wine til 9pm. Just before midnight we leave because as everyone knows the curfew is til 12 midnight. My sister in law picks me up and when I get home I have to puke, too much wine after not having dinner and remember, all that alcohol from that afternoon?
On
the 10th I headed for the Capital city of Santo Domingo on a Metro bus with my children and 4 other people. Its pouring when we get to the capital and my friends neice picks us up at the station, we headed to her apartment overlooking the Mirador, one
apartment per floor, fancy stuff, the
Mirador looks like Central Park,NYC, a little dried up but somewhat similar. The neice is married to an engineer in charge of those big projects in the country, building streets and roads. We eat delicious food that her chef prepared. At night we headed to the
Museo del Jamon, a Spaniard restaurant on the
Colonial Zone. We order Tapas(appetizers) and some really bad margaritas and pina coladas. The bill for a group of 6 about 2500 pesos what is that about $75??? We leave and go by the Hard Rock Café, its about 11:30pm so they stop us at the door and tell us no one will be serve because its almost closing time, we asked for a tour and a very cute young man shows us around. The place is very beautiful and he says that this café has the largest collection of rock memorabilia. The crowd seems to be made up of lots of tourists, and I hear many different languages being spoken. The younger crowd drink-in-hand lounges on the couches against the wall.
The next day we went to the Colonial Zone and found ourselves a very charismatic and informative guide(sorry can’t remember his name) who showed us around for about 500 pesos, it was worth it.
We visited the Cathedral(wanted to charge us 15 pesos each, didn’t pay though), visited
La Fortaleza Ozama, walked by Cristobal Colon’s house when he stayed in the DR, didn’t go in were pressed for time and they also wanted 50 pesos each to go inside. Walked by the ruins of El Convento San Francisco de Asis, used to be a mental hospital. Also stopped at the Casa del Dulce?? Bought myself a
Mamajuana and ended at the Mercado Modelo where we bought souveneirs and tasted for the first time Mamajuana with red wine, that’s how I’ll prepare mine, very very nice. Visited Bella Vista Mall, nothing impressive most of the stores are overpriced but I liked their supermarket.
We rushed back to the apartment and find some delicious Dominican meal cooked up the chef. Rice, beans, a mixture of pork chicken and beef sautéed meats. He saved the “concon” the crunchy rice from the bottom of the pan, because he was told that we were cibaenos, what? Capitalenos don’t eat concon???? We ate sooooo much that we had a hard time getting up from the table but we had to ‘cause we were heading back to Santiago that afternoon the 3:30 metro, 240 pesos each.
On the 11th we got to the campo at nightfall and after freshening up we went to my sister in laws house were there was a big dinner in honor of one of my niece’s 22nd birthday, we had a great time. After that we went dancing that night Tono Rosario was playing, 500 pesos covercharge and the Presidentes were 80 pesos each. Had a nice time, Tono was good, I like that song, Caco e maco, salta cocote!!
The 12th another day spent at home unpacking and visiting the neighbors, at night went out dancing to see
Frank Reyes, looooved him, the place was packed and he sang, twice, one of my favorite bachatas,
Princesa and “Por el Alcohol”. He sings with passion, I fell in love with Frank Reyes.
On the 13th we went out again the see
Yovanny Polanco and El Prodigio. We set up a long table for our group of about 15 people, the Presidentes and Johnny Walker kept coming. I had never seen El Prodigio played and he’s lead singer has that old fashion high pitched merenguero voice, very nice. No curfew, nice, sshhh.
On the 14th and 15th stayed in the house in the campo. I was very pleasantly surprised that on the 16th we had electricity all day!!! Wow! Was it because it was a holiday?? And the swearing in of the Diputados.
On the 16th we went deep into the mountains to visit the
Bao river, Aguascalientes. The river is very rough and the water is very cold but the water coming out of the side of the rock from a pipe is very warm almost hot, I enjoyed that, this is near La Placeta.
On the 17th another party at my sister in law’s house, a whole roasted pig,
over the fire outdoors, the most delicious pork I’ve had in a low time, danced til late with relatives who played tipico merengue.
On
the 18th I went into Santiago and met my DR1 friend again at Ahi Bar along with two other friends, this place is a sportsbar with tv monitors to watch your favorite sport. The food is pretty good and the drinks were strong. The first thing I noticed was that there were lots of men at this place. My friend says this is the hook up place to be. The men were good looking and close to middle age range the women were younger and dressed to entice. After that we went around the corner to Montezuma where they had a merengue/bachata band, we went home by 2am since it was Friday. I don’t remember where but I tried the Brahma beer, liked it, has a sweet taste nice lite flavor.
On the 19th my niece’s 10th birthday and before leaving had my hair washed cut and dried for about $12 a total bargain, back to the campo at night and straight to dancing this time with Antony Santos. My goodness does he have lots of fans in that area
One thing about
Antony Santos, he is very boastful, my goodness he also kept talking
in between songs, he is such a show off BUT he is great with that guitar.
And on the 20th we headed to the airport for our 12 o’clock flight out of Santiago, three check points before getting into the airplane and it all ends there hoping to be back very soon.
2 wonderful weeks in the DR!!
